WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): The Trump administration is pushing for a regional perspective on resolving the Afghanistan problem, the White House said Wednesday.
“What we found (during the ongoing Af-Pak policy review) is that in recent years we often just done enough in Afghanistan to avoid failure, and not enough to scale our level of efforts to succeed.
“I think, the other critical thing is that our regional approach to the problem has to change,” a senior administration official told reporters at the White House.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US had been able to look at the problem for over 15 years and understand how that conflict had evolved in Afghanistan in Pakistan.
“What we are determined to do is to have a regional perspective, to have a regional look at the problem and to make sure that we are integrating all of our efforts,” the official said
He did acknowledge they had not really seen improvements in assistance from other players in the region. The US is looking at opportunities to better connect what it is doing militarily in Afghanistan in lifting up its counter-terrorism efforts.
This was highlighted by recent US operations in ISIS strongholds in eastern Afghanistan. The US has identified the overlap with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, as well as Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) and other outfits there.
“The other aspect is the military aspect to advise and assist the Afghan security forces… highlights the need to stop attacks against the security forces, the need for us to work with the Afghan government to strengthen those security forces.
The official praised the tremendous sacrifices the Afghan forces had rendered to defend their people against the Taliban, the Haqqani network as well as other transnational terrorist organisations.
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